Investor Gary Black of The Future Fund LLC has criticized Tesla Inc.(NASDAQ:TSLA) for underperforming the Nasdaq 100 index for the last five years, which he thinks happened due to the brand not living up to the Full Self-Driving (FSD) promises.
Unsupervised FSD Hype
On Sunday, the investor shared his criticism via a post on the social media platform X as he responded to a post by influencer Whole Mars Catalog. In the post, the influencer had outlined various reasons to invest in the company. "No investment professional values $TSLA on trailing P/E," Black said in the response, adding that investors and analysts used the forward P/E ratio, which wasn't the reason the stock had "underperformed NDX" for the last five years.
"TSLA has underperformed because it has never lived up to the hype that its vehicles will drive themselves unsupervised," he said. He then repeated CEO Elon Musk's claims about Tesla Robotaxi serving over half the U.S. population by the end of last year. Musk had also touted Tesla's Robotaxi in Austin, going driverless by the end of last year.
"Despite all the assertions that Teslas drive autonomously today without supervision, TSLA still has only 9 robotaxis in operation without safety monitor," he said, criticizing the company's results for failing to match "the hype."
It's also worth noting that the FSD system is currently under investigation by NHTSA, with a potential recall that could affect millions of Tesla vehicles out on the roads.
Gary Black Decries Lack Of Marketing
The comments follow as the investor had earlier called the technology a "great product," which was negatively impacted by a lack of marketing. "The problem is a total lack of awareness with no advertising," he had earlier said.
Black had also urged Tesla to follow Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs' marketing strategy for its products. "$TSLA has the best products but has no marketing," the investor said.
According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Tesla offers Satisfactory Momentum and Growth, as well as a favorable price trend in the Long term.
Price Action: TSLA slid 2.76% to $361.83 at market close on Friday, slipping 0.37% further to $360.50 during the overnight trading session.
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